Maundy Thursday

Ann Voskamp writes today,

What the head knows matters, but how the heart feels known matters more.

...Who doesn’t want to be more deeply seen and truly found — and who isn’t deeply afraid of being found out and seen as less than? The thing we want most — to be seen — is the thing we are most afraid of — to be seen and rejected.

It’s Holy Week — ask Jesus.

...“What if — you don’t feel wanted at the table you’re sitting at?”

You have to name your fears to tame your fears.

...I light the ring of candles on Maundy Thursday, maundatam Thursday, Thursday of the new mandate, and it burns in all the dark places, that command that Jesus gives of the Last supper:

“A new command I give you: Love one another…

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34–35)

There is no being known has a disciple if you aren’t known for your love.

They say that that the Romans lined the roads with crucifixions as a means to intimidate the masses into submission, that in actual fact, crosses were slammed into the ground and the crucified only hung 6 inches to a foot off the ground, so no traveller could avoid facing the sacrificed and exposed.

Stripped entirely naked, Jesus hung on a cross at almost eye level, unprotected, uncovered, unmasked.

Look your naked and vulnerable God straight in the eye. Feel the heaving breath of His surrendered givenness.

...Your vulnerable God stretches His arms out and begs you to live the beauty of vulnerability.

...Jesus sees the most broken parts of our hearts that we are most terrified of being seen — and He keeps His covenant to see us fully— and never leave us, ever.

Because the Vulnerable God was forsaken on the cross — we get to be fully seen with our crosses — and never left, never abandoned, never forsaken. This is the covenant we can know and we can give — so we are known as His.

Read more here.